


Pro Bono

by Kaillingme (Setty94)



Category: EXO (Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - Lawyers, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-17
Updated: 2013-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-04 09:32:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10988163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setty94/pseuds/Kaillingme
Summary: (Transferred work from another site.)Kyungsoo had a great life. He was the top lawyer at his firm, had a beautiful girlfriend, and a penthouse with a view of the beach. Then one day it all changed, he met Jongin, a juvenile delinquent with a terrible past and an involvement in an underground fight scene. Kyungsoo was chosen to represent him in the court of law as pro bono case. What started as a charity case quickly becomes one of passion. Just how far will Kyungsoo go, to turn Jongin’s life around and get him acquitted of his charges?





	Pro Bono

**Author's Note:**

> This has been put on hold.

 

 

 

Kyungsoo’s eyes flew open at the blaring of his alarm. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and yawned, stretching catlike as he walked towards his bathroom. He stared at himself in the mirror and smiled faintly at his bed head and jumped in the shower.  He found himself thinking about his last case that he’d been working on and sighed. He may be the country’s best lawyer, but not every case goes smoothly and his last certainly did not. He still won the case for his client, but with a slightly higher sentence than he had planned. Biting his lip, he considered the thought that he might be losing his touch, but it was too soon.

He had become a somewhat of a celebrity after joining the EXO Law Firm, especially with such little experience in the practice. Everyone in the law firm was very young and extremely adept at what they did, so the day he received a letter asking him to join the firm, his jaw nearly fell to the floor. How could he, not even finished with law school, be asked to join the exclusive EXO branch under SM? However, after joining he soon proved his prowess by winning each case that was thrown at him, no matter how difficult it was. He was something of the legends, one of the best that EXO had and everyday he received more and more cases, and each day he turned down more and more and only took on the most difficult of cases.

Recently, though, he found his grip slipping, missing out on minor details, becoming lazy in his practice and less focused. He loved his job, he loved his life, but what he was lacking now was some passion. Still, he smiled at the thought of going in to work, earning money, and eventually securing enough funds to retire early.

Getting dressed briskly, he combed his hair back into his usual style and grabbed his keys, his thoughts still lingering on that case. He shrugged his shoulders and shook it off, hoping that some coffee would fill the emptiness that was beginning to form within him. His phone rang; he pressed the button on his Bluetooth and crammed a bite of the bagel he just bought into his mouth.

“Hello?”

“Kyungie, it’s me, Chohee.” She whined.

“Right, sorry hon, I’m driving right now so I couldn’t check the caller ID.”

“That’s fine, so I was wondering if you wanted to come over for dinner tonight.”

“Sure, that sounds great!” He paused, lips pursed. “Listen, I’ll call you on my lunch break, traffic if horrible right now.” Kyungsoo hung up and drummed his fingers on the wheel of his silver 458 Ferrari Spider; it was going to be a long commute.

Briefcase in one hand, coffee in the other, Kyungsoo rushed up the steps of his firm and was greeted by Baekhyun, another recent recruit into the firm, arriving at the same time.

“Running late too? He smiled.

“Yeah traffic was horrible today.” He nodded.

Kyungsoo liked Baekhyun; he was a nice, funny guy, who always kept the mood light in the firm. He was also recruited right after college and was only about a year older than him. He helped him learn the ropes of the firm and even gave him some advice on his first case. All in all, he was a good friend and Kyungsoo felt happy to have met him.

Kyungsoo’s desk was very neat, a pencil holder on the right with a notepad right beneath it, his work computer in the center, and a picture of him and Chohee on the left. He placed his briefcase down and opened it, removing the final files of his case to be transcribed to his work computer and sent in. He chatted briefly with Joonmyeon about going out for drinks in the next few days and with Chanyeol about a surprise birthday they had planned for Baekhyun some months down the road.

~*~

    Kai stared at his reflection in the grimy mirror in the dimly lit bathroom. There was a bruise flowering on the bottom of his jaw and some slight swelling of his lips. He breathed deeply and splashed some water on his face and smoothed back his hair. He turned around, examining his back, careful to avoid looking at the jagged scar on his right ribcage. There were a few more bruises, nothing majorly damaging, so he shrugged and wrapped his knuckles with some tape and head back out to the crowded abandoned subway.

    “Who’s up?”

    “I am.” Kai smirked and shoved his way through the mob of people.

“No way, you just fought.” The man said.

“Your point?” Kai raised an eyebrow.

“Fine. Who wants to go against him?” The man looked around the crowd, when no one volunteered; he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Come on someone has to go or we’re done for tonight.”

“I’ll go.” A blonde haired, mask wearing man stepped forward.

“Right. So the rules are as follows: anything goes.” He raised his whistle to his lips and blew it. “Go!”

Kai sized up his opponent, staying light on the balls of his feet. The blonde man had several weaknesses that Kai spotted almost immediately; he left his ribcage unprotected and gave away almost all of his punches before they happened.

Kai dodged a right hook deftly and struck him swiftly three times on his left side. The man winced and shied back. Kai took this opportunity to strike him in the jaw and circled him. His opponent shook his head, blonde hair plastered to his forehead with sweat and advanced towards Kai, his left arm swinging back. Kai side-stepped him and relished the collision of his fist with the cracking of the blonde man’s nose. The blonde man fell to the ground, raising his arm in surrender. Kai tilted his head and grinned.

Later that night, when Kai arrived home, he found that his father was already passed out, drunk, on the sofa. He crept past him and locked himself in his room. Sitting on his thin mattress, he began applying some antiseptics to his open cuts and grabbed a few ice packs out of his minifreezer and placed them on the biggest bruises. He counted the money he had made five hundred thousand won, and stowed it under his mattress. He sighed, ‘Only seven hundred thousand more to go and I can get out of this hellhole.’ He thought he heard the creaking of the springs in the sofa and quickly buried his head into his pillow.

His father slammed open the door, “Who the hell do you think you are, sneaking into this house so late at night?”

Kai pretended to be asleep; he was not in the mood to deal with his father’s drunkenness.

“I know you can fucking hear me, so stop pretending to be asleep!” His father stumbled over to his bed and ripped the thin sheet Kai had covering his body, noticing the bruises and scratches, he blinked.

“Out fighting again, huh? One of these days you’re gonna wind up getting killed and I’ll be here laughing my ass off.” His father left, still chuckling to himself, the sheet slung over his shoulders.

Kai squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip to fight the tears that threatened to fall. He let out an unsteady breath and curled up into a ball and shivered.

The next day after school Kai decided to go home, hoping his father would not be there or at least sober. He wasn’t quite sure which version of his father he liked best. The quiet sober one who just stared blankly at him, not remembering his drunken rampages, who would suddenly break down and cry the moment he remembered that day. Or, the drunk father who blamed Kai for the death of his wife and daughters, the one who beat him with broken beer bottles and slammed his head into the walls. The one who at least showed some emotion, even if it was only anger and resentment, those were better than staring at a man so broken, he could barely remember his own name.

However, Kai’s father hadn’t been sober for two months now, so what he came home to was no surprise.

“The school called today, said you beat up some kid after fifth period.” His father rubbed his chin and took another slug of his beer. There were already seven empty one on the table surrounding him.

Kai said nothing and just stared at him for a few seconds before going to his room. He sat on his bed; it wasn’t his fault that the kid picked on his best friend Sehun for his lisp. Sehun tried to get him to leave it alone, but Kai was itching for something, someone to set him off, so he beat the living daylights out of the kid. He was tired of Sehun getting picked on for stupid things such as a slight lisp or how close he was to some other guy named Luhan. Besides, it was his last day of school and he knew that he was only graduating just so that the school could be free of him.

Kai rolled onto his back and felt something missing under his mattress. Springing off his bed he lifted it and saw that all his money was gone. Instantly enraged, he stormed down the hall. “What the hell did you do with my money?”

His father stood up, a little unsteady on his feet. “Your money? This is my house, so everything that is in it is mine before it’s yours.”

Kai squinted his eyes, “What are you even saying? That was my hard earned money! ”

“Money that you should not have been hiding from me. It’s too late to do anything about it anyways, I already spent it.” His father clapped his hand on Kai’s shoulder, “Look, I bought us a new television set, since the last one got broken somehow. Let’s sit down and watch a game like old times.”

Kai seethed, “You broke it. You broke it during one of you blind drunken rages.” Kai could barely keep his voice steady and was shaking all over with rage. “You got so mad that I did not feel like eating that you threw a chair at me, which missed and knocked the television down. And no, I’m not doing anything with you, not when you’re like this.”

His father’s grip tightened on his shoulder and moved to his neck. “Listen you little fuck, you do as I say or else.”

“Or else what? You’re going to strangle me to death? Do it! Do it and you won’t have to deal with me ever again; you can go on living your pathetic life.” Kai screamed, he was beginning to see dots around the edge of his vision.

His father threw him to the ground and left, probably headed to some bar where he could drink himself into oblivion. Kai stood up and rubbed his neck, he could imagine the marks of fingers already appearing.

He grabbed his jacket and headed out a few hours after sunset. Usually by now he’d be over an argument with his father, but for some reason he wasn’t. He knew he shouldn’t go to the ring this mad, but he desperately needed to blow off some steam or he’d explode. He went over to his usual station and removed his shirt and shoes. He began wrapping his knuckles slowly and purposefully.

“Give me the biggest guy you’ve got.” Tonight there was a rival fight club in town, and Kai was unknown to them.

The other team scoffed and pushed an opponent forward. Kai gasped, the man looked almost identical to his father, a much younger version, but the resemblance was unnerving. The other team snickered at Kai’s response and cheered.

His opponent looked him in the eye and smiled, “Don’t worry I’ll make it quick.”

Even his voice sounded like his, Kai’s eyes grew wide and stepped back, remembering the times when his father beat him. Suddenly he was flying backwards, his lip bleeding.

He snapped.

Nothing around him mattered anymore, he could no longer see or hear the crowd that gathered around him, it was only him and his opponent. He got in a strike to the guy’s stomach and he crumpled to the ground. Kai continued fighting him, punching his face over and over, his white bandages soaked in the man’s blood. His nose crunch under his fist with a sickening pop, but Kai kept seeing his father’s face on him and could not stop. The referee pulled Kai off of him, heaving, body shaking from adrenaline, sweat beading on his skin. Kai did not struggle against him, he just sort of collapsed, drained.

“He’s not breathing! Somebody call an ambulance!”

Dread hit him like a freight train.

~*~

“Yo! Kyungsoo! Just got a new case in today. This one seems right up your alley.” Chanyeol tossed the folder labeled KJI-0976 onto Kyungsoo’s desk.

Kyungsoo glanced up, somewhat startled “Jeez! Warn someone will ya?”

Chanyeol smiled and bounced on his feet slightly, “Take a look, tell me if you want it.”

Kyungsoo flipped through the file, his heart quickened with each page he scans. He looked up at Chanyeol, his hands trembling, this was the case he needed, the case he was looking for, and whispered, “No, I can’t do it.”

“What? Why?” Chanyeol’s eyes widen to the point where he looks slightly less than crazy.

In fact, Kyungsoo was not sure why he didn’t want to take this case, he thought that maybe it was because he was afraid of losing for the first time. “I can’t.”

Chanyeol sighed “I guess we’ll have to send it to another firm then.”

“Wait. No one else wanted the case either?” His eyes widened.

“No one else thought they could handle it and they all suggested that you take it, even Joonmyeon passed it up for you.”

“Oh.” Kyungsoo was taken aback by the others’ confidence in him. “Then, I’ll take it.” He was still holding the file with trembling hands and gazed at the file name KJI-0976.

Chanyeol smiled, “Good, oh and I’ll have to cancel our thing tonight, apparently Baekhyun has tickets to some show and wanted me to go with him.

Kyungsoo grinned, “No problem, that means an early start on this case.” And that Baekhyun is finally taking his first step. Maybe these two will stop complaining to me in private then.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! This is something that was sitting in my WIPs folder and I am not sure when I'll get to it (if I ever will) so I decided to post it here as a drabble. If there is a strong enough response to it, then maybe I'll turn it into a full fic? I have an entire outline for it complete with character charts and everything, but my drive to write it was sorta taken over by El Dorado since I started this before I wrote that fic. Maybe...just maybe I'll come back to it.


End file.
